CALHOUN, Ga. - Drive around this neighborly town for any length of time, and you'll quickly realize that for the hardworking folks who fill the school's football stadium every Friday night, an atheist is someone who doesn't believe in Hal Lamb.
Considering what Lamb has built for this football-crazed community, it's easy to understand why Yellow Jackets fans believe they are now entitled to play for a state championship each season.
"It's definitely a lot harder to maintain the success, to stay on top than it was to build it," Lamb admitted. "We're at the point now where if we don't win every game by 30 points, people ask what's wrong.
"Even for me, the losses are a lot harder to get over when it does happen."
Losses simply haven't happened very often in Lamb's 19 years as Calhoun's head coach. The Yellow Jackets have won more than 90 percent of their games since his arrival, a span in which they've appeared in seven state title games and won two. Lamb has won at least two playoff games each of the past nine years and coached 52 first-team all-state players.
Calhoun head coach Hal Lamb watches his Yellow Jackets warm up. The Elbert County Blue Devils visited the Calhoun Yellow Jackets in a GHSA Football Playoff game on Friday November 27, 2015.
Calhoun hosts Dalton tonight in what has become one of the best rivalries in the tri-state area. The Yellow Jackets had an unheard of seven straight wins against Dalton until the Catamounts snapped that streak last year. Lamb is 8-3 against Dalton, an envious record against one of the Peach State's proudest programs.
Over the past nine years, Calhoun hasn't lost a regular-season game to any team other than Carrollton, Cartersville or Dalton.
"Over the years of playing them, what stood out to me was his attention to detail," said current Howard coach John Starr, who won a Georgia state title at Augusta's Josey in 1995 but was just 1-7 against Lamb in 11 seasons at Chattooga.
"Playing his teams only made you better, and he's built something really special there. It's one of the most exciting atmospheres in all of north Georgia. It's electric and really it's what high school football is all about."
In their first season under Lamb, the Yellow Jackets finished 2-8 and had some fans wondering if the young head coach would last another season. Since then, he has compiled a 205-27 overall record, winning an astounding 16 consecutive region titles - the last 15 seasons without a league loss, or 123 straight region wins.
To put it in perspective, many of the current Calhoun players weren't even born the last time the program lost to a region opponent.
"When I came here, I thought it had the potential to be good, but honestly I had no idea it could become this awesome," said the 53-year old Lamb, who has retired from teaching and now only has to concentrate on coaching. "After that first year, I heard some grumbling in the community, but I decided to pinpoint our work toward the middle school, because that was our future, and upgrading our weight room and facilities.
"We've done all that, and the success has followed."
The grumblings have long been silenced, and now the only concern among Yellow Jackets faithful is whether Lamb would ever seriously consider leaving them for one of the multiple offers from other programs he gets approached with almost annually.
"We've raised our two boys here and made this our home," said Lamb, who has outlasted six principals at the school. "The question I get asked the most is how much longer I'll coach before I retire, but I tell you, I still love being around the kids and get excited on Friday nights. So for as long as I continue to have that relationship with the kids, I'll be right here."
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.